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A Section Devoted to Old-Car Matters

“Driving a ‘bus in a rush hour is very like vintage car racing; it demands neatness and accuracy”—from “Busman’s View” by C.R. Wason (Allen & Unwin, 1958), which contains other unexpected references to vintage-car motoring.

* * *

There were only two pre-war cars at the V.S.C.C. “Phoenix” evening in January. Appropriately these were p.v.t. “Chain Gang” Frazer Nashes, with solid back axles. Presumably all the other regulars were snow-bound.

* * *

Historic racing cars at the Racing Car Show at Olympia included the Montagu Motor Museum’s V16 B.R.M. and W196 Mercedes-Benz, a 1958 Vanwall, Sir Ralph Millais’ 1925 Viz Sunbeam, Grice’s 4CL Maserati, Arnold-Forster’s 1922 5-litre hill-climb Delage and Peter Waller’s E.R.A. There is just time to see them—the Show closes on February 2nd.

* * *

Wiscombe Park Hill-Climbs this year will have a vintage sports and racing car handicap, as started last year at Shelsey Walsh. Handicapping will be arranged by the V.S.C.C. It is hoped that the fastest four or six cars in this class will be allowed an extra run at each meeting, irrespective of handicap; the owners of the hill are offering prizes of £10, £5 and £2 10s. for the three fastest vintage cars at each Wiscombe Meeting this year. The fastest vintage car overall will win the Lambton Trophy, presented by Major Charles W. Lambton.

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We hear that at last the Austin Motor Company has made their twin-cam Austin Seven racing car presentable. It wasn’t at the Racing Car Show this time but was on display at the Motorists’ Fair in Birmingham last month.

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The Tiger Club has announced flying displays at Panshanger on Easter Monday, April 15th; Fair Oaks on April 28th, June 16th, August 5th and September 29th; Sywell on Whit-Monday, June 3rd; Southampton on June 30th; Rochester on July 21st and September 8th (PFA Rally); and Shoreham on August 18th. Those who enjoy old-time air displays and have the light aeroplane movement at heart may care to reserve these days. Urgent enquiries to James Gilbert at Holborn 4381.

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Historic Racing Car News.—D. C. Pitt of Newbury has acquired the 1934 supercharged M.G. K3 Magnette raced by Penn Hughes and Kaye Don and developed during the war by Peter Monkhouse for Hamish Weir, with two-stage supercharging and alternative single-seater body. The V.S.C.C. has revised its rules relating to vintage and historic racing cars. In future single-seaters, with four or more cylinders, raced up to the end of 1951, are classed as historic but only as vintage if actually raced before 1931. We apologise for saying that the 8CM Maserati in the Clères Museum won the 1934 French G.P.; this race was won by Chiron’s Alfa Romeo.

* * *

Whose is the unfortunate Bentley (TU 5987), described in the hand-out as a “1927/29 4½-litre ‘Red Label’,” which appears in the film “The Fast Lady” adorned with a boa-constrictor bulb horn and which spends some of its time in deep water, when driven by Stanley Baxter? James Roberton Justice stars in the film; he is described as a racing-car driver. We remember him at Lewes with a G.N. and in a Relay Race with a Wolseley Hornet.

Miscellany.—A gentleman, aged 84, in retirement in Skipton, claims to have helped to build the town’s first car, in 1897. There have been no recent interesting discoveries (has the snow buried them?) apart from some spares for a 1925 Oveland 25 cwt. truck, a blown Alfa Romeo said to be rotting away in a Midlands garage, and a Minerva in Berkshire thought to have a Bedford engine, but there is a request for Hudson, Terraplane, Railton and similar spares and data on G.W.K., Krit and Scripps-Booth, and literature about o.h.c. M.G. models.